It’s certainly hittin’ season for Kyle Schwarber. He followed up Saturday night’s three-homer game with another long ball in powering the Phillies to a 6-2 win over the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday night.
The Phillies took two of three from the Mets, outscoring them 21-5 in the two wins. The Phils, who play their next seven games on the road, went 4-2 on the homestand and are now 42-35, 6 ½ games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East. They were 10 ½ back a month ago.
Under Don Mattingly, the Phillies are 33-16. They’ve won 12 of 16 series. They were minus-54 in run differential when Mattingly took over as manager. They are now minus-4. They haven’t had a positive run differential since the first week of the season.
Schwarber’s majors-leading 29th home run was a three-run shot against Mets lefty David Peterson in the second inning. The Phillies slugger is on pace for 61 homers. Time will tell if he gets there, but he’s sure fun to watch when he gets on these power streaks.
As a team, the Phillies hit .290 (60 for 207) with 11 homers, nine doubles and three triples on the homestand.
Schwarber had eight hits on the homestand. Five of them were homers. He loves hitting in June. He has seven home runs this month and 74 in 226 career games in the month of June. In just under 4 ½ seasons with the Phillies, he has 216 homers. He’s up to 369 for his career. He’s 33 years old. His contract with the Phillies runs through 2030. At this pace, he will make a run at 500 homers and the Hall of Fame in a Phillies uniform.
Two-time National League MVP Bryce Harper is likely already headed to the Hall of Fame and pitcher Zack Wheeler is pitching himself into consideration. According to Fangraphs WAR, he has been the top starting pitcher in baseball since arriving in Philadelphia before the 2020 season.
Harper and Wheeler both came up big for the Phillies on Sunday night. One night after hitting for the cycle, Harper came up just a triple shy of duplicating the feat as he singled, doubled and homered.
Wheeler, meanwhile, pitched 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball to run his record to 7-1. His ERA is 2.11. Wheeler and Cristopher Sanchez, Saturday’s night’s winner, have combined to make 21 starts this season. The Phillies are 17-4 in those games.
Wheeler did not have his best command Sunday night. He ran some deep counts and pushed his pitch count over 100 in the sixth inning when he uncharacteristically walked three batters. Mattingly visited Wheeler at the mound with one out and the bases loaded. Mattingly stayed with Wheeler for the second out, a fielder’s choice that resulted in a run, then went to Jonathan Bowlan who ended the inning with a strikeout of Marcus Semien.
Jose Alvarado, Orion Kerkering and Jhoan Duran combined on three scoreless innings to close it out.
(More coming…)
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